Habs-Rangers tonight

I began yesterday with a warning post that it would be a slow day. I believe my actual words were “So I’m not sure if there will be anything of substance here today.”

So, five posts, one fairly major trade, and a 2010-11 season record for traffic later …

Anyway, today I predict a busy day, starting with this morning preview, going through the naming today of the all-star participants, a pre-game post, the start of yet another potentially major snow storm, and a fairly important Original Six game against a conference rival, including the probable Rangers debut of Wojtek Wolski and the start of the post-Rozsival era.

TONIGHT’S GAME:The Rangers will face-off against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), in an Original Six match-up. The Blueshirts currently rank third in the Atlantic Division standings, and sixth in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 25-15-3 (53 pts). The Rangers enter the contest having defeated the St. Louis Blues, 2-1, on Saturday at Scottrade Center to improve to 8-2-2 in their last 12 games, and have won each of their last three games. New York has registered a point in 20 of their last 28 games (18-8-2), and is 8-3-1 in their last 12 games at home. The Canadiens enter the contest with a 23-16-3 (49 pts) record to rank eighth in the Eastern Conference, and each of their last four games have gone into overtime (3-0-1). Following the contest, the Rangers will face-off against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, Jan. 13, at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.).

All-Time: 188-315-94-3 overall (124-121-54-1 at home, 64-194-40-2 on the road)

2010-11: Tonight’s contest marks the first of four meetings this season, and the first of two meetings at Madison Square Garden

Last Season: New York was 1-2-1 overall and 1-1-0 at home. Marian Gaborik led the Rangers with five points (two goals, three assists) in the season series.

The Rangers rank 19th with a 10-8-2 (22 pts) record at home; the Canadiens are tied for 22nd with a 9-11-0 (18 pts) mark on the road

The Rangers are 6-2-1 vs. the Northeast Division; the Canadiens are 6-4-0 against the Atlantic Division

Henrik Lundqvist is 10-6-2 with a 2.98 goals against average and one shutout in 19 career regular season appearances vs. Montreal; Martin Biron has posted a record of 14-10-0-1 with a 2.41 goals against average and two shutouts in 27 career regular season games against the Canadiens

SPECIAL TEAMS:The Blueshirts have posted a plus-six rating on special teams (PPG+SHG minus PPGA+SHGA) this season, which is tied for eighth in the league.

Power Play: The Rangers did not tally a goal in five power play opportunities (7:50) on Saturday at St. Louis. New York ranks 22nd overall (25-155, 16.1%) and ranks 26th at home (12-76, 15.8%). The Rangers are 1-5 (5:01) in five-on-three situations (last – 11/24 at TBL), and 0-2 (2:23) when four-on-three (last – 12/3 vs. NYI). Shorthanded goals allowed (3): 11/20 at MIN (Cullen); 12/5 vs. OTT (Kelly); 1/2 at FLA (Weiss).

Penalty Killing: The Blueshirts held the Blues scoreless in six shorthanded situations (10:49) on Saturday at St. Louis, and are now 85-97 (87.6%) over the last 31 games. New York ranks 10th overall (125-150, 83.3%) and 14th at home (50-60, 83.3%). The Rangers are 5-7 (5:18) in three-on-five situations (last – 1/8 at STL), and 4-6 (2:41) when three-on-four (last – 11/15 at PIT). Shorthanded goals for (9): 10/9 at BUF (Dubinsky); 11/5 at NJD (Dubinsky); 11/15 at PIT (Staal); 11/24 at TBL (Boyle); 11/26 at FLA (Prust); 12/5 vs. OTT (Prust); 12/12 vs. WSH (Staal); 12/16 vs. PHX (Prust); 1/7 at DAL (Fedotenko).

ORIGINAL SIX SINCE 2005-06New York has posted a record of 42-21-12 (96 pts) against Original Six opponents since the 2005-06 season, including a 10-7-3 mark vs. Montreal over the span. The Rangers’ .640 winning percentage ranks second, trailing Detroit (.713%, 36-13-5) and ahead of Montreal (.621%, 61-35-11), Boston (.523%, 48-43-17), Toronto (.519%, 47-43-18), and Chicago (.447%, 22-28-7).

A NORTHEAST FEASTThe Rangers have posted a record of 6-2-1 (13 pts) in nine games vs. Northeast Division opponents this season, and are now 17-8-4 (36 pts) vs. the Northeast Division since the start of 2009-10 after posting an 11-6-3 (25 pts) mark against the Northeast Division in 20 games last season.

BACK-TO-BACKSThe Rangers completed their 11th of 18 back-to-back sets with a 2-1 win at St. Louis on Saturday. New York is 6-4-1 (1-0-0 at home, 5-4-1 on the road) in the first game of back-to-backs, following a 3-2 shootout win at Dallas on Friday. The Blueshirts are 10-1-0 (4-0-0 at home, 6-1-0 on the road) in the second game this season, having out-scored their opponent, 33-13, in those games. Over the last two seasons, New York is 19-3-2 in the back-end of back-to-back sets, including a 8-1-1 mark at MSG and 10-2-1 on the road over the span.

COMPARED TO LAST SEASON…The Rangers have registered four more wins and six more points compared to last season through 43 games (21-17-5, 47 points in 2009-10), having tallied 10 more goals (126 this season, 116 last season) while allowing 12 fewer goals against (107 this season, 119 last season). New York has also shown a five-goal improvement while shorthanded compared to 2009-10 (nine this season, four last season).

WINNING HABITNew York is currently 10 games over .500 with a 25-15-3 record. New York was never more than six games over .500 last season, having last been at least 10 games over on April 12, 2009 (43-30-9).

AMONG THE LEAGUE LEADERSThe Rangers lead the league in shorthanded goals (nine) and road wins (15), are tied for fifth in wins (25), rank eighth in points (53), ninth in goals (126), and are tied for sixth with a plus-19 goal differential.

STARTING STRONGThe Blueshirts have tallied the first goal of the game in 23 of their 43 games, posting a record of 17-5-1 in those contests, and own a record of 10-1-1 when leading after the first period.

COMEBACK KIDSNew York leads the NHL with 13 points when trailing after two periods, having registered a 5-9-3 mark in those games. The Blueshirts’ five wins are tied for first in the league. New York won back-to-back games on Dec. 15 at Pittsburgh (4-1) and Dec. 16 vs. Phoenix (4-3, SO), despite trailing by a goal entering the third period in both games. The last time the Rangers won consecutive games when trailing after two periods was during the 2008-09 season, on Nov. 15 vs. Boston (3-2) and Nov. 17 vs. Ottawa (2-1). Both games required the shootout.

TEAM EFFORTThe Rangers have had 16 different players credited with at least one game winning goal this season, which is the most in the NHL.

LITTLE THINGS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCEThe Rangers currently lead the NHL with 1,227 hits and rank second with 680 blocked shots. Ryan Callahan ranked second in the league with 128 hits and led all NHL forwards with 40 blocked shots prior to his injury on Dec. 15, while Dan Girardi currently leads the league with 125 blocked shots and Brian Boyle is tied for ninth in the NHL with 128 hits.

20-WINSThe Rangers registered their 20th win of the season with a 4-3 shootout win vs. Phoenix on Dec. 16, reaching the mark in just 34 games which is tied for 12th fastest in franchise history.

THE HOT LIST:

Henrik Lundqvist is 11-4-2 with a 1.78 goals against average, a .934 save percentage and three shutouts in his last 17 games

Brandon Dubinsky has registered 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in the last 17 contests, including nine points (two goals, seven assists) in the last eight

Matt Gilroy has registered four points (three goals, one assist) in his last seven contests, and has posted a plus-11 rating in his last 18 games

Marian Gaborik has recorded 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in his last 25 games

Derek Stepan has registered 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in the last 27 contests, with seven points (five goals, two assists) in the last 10

Brian Boyle has recorded 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in the last 16 games, and five points (two goals, three assists) in the last eight

Mats Zuccarello has registered four points (one goal, three assists) in the last seven games

Habs are the only Eastern team the Rangers haven’t faced. In years past I’d be worried whether the Rangers could contain their rush but something tells me they’re going to really take the play to the depleted MTL blueline. Would love to see Wolski get on the scoresheet tonight.

cw- I believe time will only tell who won this trade. At the moment, both teams have seemingly accomplished what their needs were. The Rangers needed to replace Frolov with NHL player, Phoenix got an experienced Dman. The Rangers also improved their cap situation, albeit only by $1.2M. Roszival was not in their long term plans anyway. Phoenix also absorbed a higher cap hit while paying actually less money.

Now, if WW turns out to be a bust, and the Rangers’ D crumbles without Roszival- then we lose the trade. Anything else- I think the Rangers got the better of this one.

Korpedo definitely a win and the Prucha/Dawes/Kalinin and Montoya deals I think are a wash. Overall edge to Maloney but depending on the moves resulting from yesterday’s tradeit could tip the scale to the Rangers favor.

Cap hit space from the trade I think is more valuable for the off-season. I’m fine with them not making any big trades the rest of the year (not even counting the never gonna happen Richards trade). A minor trade to add depth but all the players people wanted gone or at least not on the active roster are no longer there so trades from now on could involve players worth keeping.

Now there’s a mouthful for ya. I bet the announcers have a mouth cramp with that one. And what can they do about it? I suppose there’s always the possibility of calling him Dubya Dubya. Oh well, we shall soon see how they handle it. Best way of course is simply to stick to the last name only.

ilb – I disagree. There’s no way that the Rangers lose the trade. They got rid of Rozi. That’s all that matters. Now they can give the young d-men more PT and hopefully they’ll get better with experience. What Wolski does is irrelevant.

Charlie, until Cally returns the Rangers need Wolski to play at least at 4th line level because the alternatives are pretty bleak. But in general yes the trade for the Rangers was Rozi for someone other than Rozi that’s a cheaper cap hit and doesn’t play top 6 D minutes.

Good morning all…I hope you shake that flu bug soon ilb. I am suprised you didn’t get a flu shot.
I wonder if wolski will play tonight? They said that Rosi will join the team in Columbus today, so he might play tonight. As far as the trade goes if Wolski gets a few points, and holds his own defensively, the Rangers win the trade. It was time for Rosi to go.

And I just can’t get over my delight in the Pens collapse last night. 2 games each by the Rangers and the B’s in Pitt where the teams flat out stole wins from their back pocket. That’s 7 of 8 points (Pens got the pity point in the first Rangers game) the Pens have left on the table. Think how different the standings would look if the Pens had held onto those games?

Rangers with the edge in this trade.. Get rid of roszsival and get a player who, if needed, can be ALOT more easily moved during the off season/trade deadline. Slats must have some pretty damning photos of donnie moloney if you ask me

Cross Check- I guess my sickness didn’t allow my sarcasm to be more obvious. The clue is “If the Rangers’ defense crumbles without Roszival”. I’m sur he would’ve been gone in the offseason the latest, anyway.

I’m not all that excited about Wolski from what I’ve read. Basically, he sounds like a bigger version of Zherdev. Defensively deficient, will have hot streaks then disappear for a while. But, if he can have a hot streak until Cally gets back that’ll be fine with me, but I’m not picking him up for my fantasy team.

Interesting stretch of 10 games coming up, including: Montreal twice in the next 3 and Les Habitants always give the Rangers fits, Canucks, arguably the best team in the NHL right now, Hurricanes again (who are playing well), Thrashers, Caps and Flyers. Only 2 ‘soft’ opponents (does that even exist anymore) – Toronto and Florida (the latter we just lost 2 a week ago).

A 6 and 4 record would be acceptable, I think, and 7 and 3 even better.

I am very exciting about Wolski. 1) he had 23 goals and 42 assists last season. 2) until this season he has been a consistent 45+ point player 3) he’s the same age as Dubinsky 4) despite his name and birthplace, he put on his first pair of skates in Canada so the idea that he is some enigmatic European who doesn’t know any better is simply not true.

WW left Poland at 3. His family moved to W. Germany. They moved to Canada two years after. So he’s been in Canada since 5 yr of age. He is a Canadian boy, I think. Wonder what Don Cherry has to to say about that.

I liked Wolski as an Av he could easily be a top 6 forward on this team but sucks that this only reduces our cap by $1.2M I thought it would be more. I wonder if he plays center?

Frolov out for the season did indeed make this urgent. And it’s a big risk with all the young D-men. Del Z and company are going to have to step it up.

Rozsival was treated like Malik at times and has had a good strong season. Nothing bad to say about him.

I’m just glad we dumped a bit salcap and didn’t give up an arm and two legs for Brad Richards. The Stars are serious about winning the Cup this year and probably won’t part with him without a stud d-man and draft picks.

the Rangers are inevitably going to get a d-man. It may not be a top guy like Kaberle but a 2nd/3rd pair d-man with playoff experience is going to happen but probably not soon.

I also dont expect Del Zotto to be back anytime soon. He’s a liability defensively and while his offense is needed, not at the expense of defense. Hopefully, he finishes the season and has a great playoff run in HFD so that he can be more prepared for next season.

noonan and oleo, yes, for the time being, they apparently will go with six. … that’s all you need when your farm club is so close. And I don’t see a trade for a big-time D-man because it would be too costly. Maybe a second-pair guy. Otherwise, they will stick with the kids. And I do expect Del Zotto back soon, depending on the reports the Rangers get from Gernander in Reddenville.

I was thinking the Rangers would look to veteran D, not ruling out trading a prospect. I wouldn’t advocate that,just saying they MIGHT do it. The NYR need playoff revenue. This team is good, not great. There needs to be more war horses for the push.

Brewer, Pitkanen, Rivet and Phillips if they want a steady in their own end guy. Out of those 4, Ottawa seems to be the only team that could be ready to concede the season. The other teams are either on the rise or are close enough to not consider selling assets.

4 comparing to 2 would account for double experience. The point is, despite their young age, Girardi and Staal both played in the playoffs for a few years and will still be relied upon as the first pair. What’s the use of acquiring someone who will play 7th d-man minutes, especially if you need to give up any assets for him?

If they made a trade on D I think it would be a 2nd pair guy that comes of the books during the summer, possibly someone to help out on the PP if it continues to struggle. Despite the push to stay with youth I don’t think they can realistically play Staal and Girardi nearly 30 minutes a night and have them have anything left over for the playoffs. And right now they’re doing that because Torts doesn’t trust McD enough to play the PK or Gilroy enough to take over 1st unit PP duties.

it all depends on what they want for Richards. They are going to want more than just prospects or a pick they need NHL-ready players. They are in this for the Cup.

With 3 D-men out and stacked at forwards they are going to ask for Del Z and #1s +, or Girardi + picks. They need Richards almost as much as we do only they need a D-man. Say what you will about Rozsival but we just got rid of a more than serviceable D-man.

For the moment i’m loving this deal – subtract a 32 year old D, replace with 24 year old F, recall a 20 year old D to cover and subtract an injured 31 year old F.
Correct me if i’m wrong but the average age of the team just dropped a whole year in one swoop!

WW needs to show he’s worth it here, in PHX he would never have got demoted or waived because of the ownership issues, if he doesnt cut it here he’ll be on the train on a one-way ticket to Reddenville.
Will he take Aves’ spot on the left of Arty and Gaby and push Aves down to 3rd/4th line again?

ilb
sorry to hear you got the flu
i had a bit of a relapse late saturday night.
called off work sunday and slept most of the day
that and changing up my routine with more
gargling, nettie pot usage and a different type of mucinex
seems to be helping.

if i didn’t have to get up early today to do a phoner
the extra sleep probably would have helped.
oh well….

Trading for Captain America means that Dallas are going to be buyers at the deadline, not sellers. They’d want NHL ready D-men, not necessarily guys where they’d have to wait for the upside. I think they’d target players from Doodie’s list from earlier.

You know that Darth is lining up a run at Richards in the summer – based on his performance this year and last year i’m all for it, unless one of Arty or Stepan really stake their claim on the top line.
My only worry is the length of contract Slats is likely to give him – he’s 30 now, be 31 at the start of next season – if he could get him for 3 or 4 years for $7.5m maybe, but if its 5 years and any more than that its a risk as it would no doubt include a no-trade of some sort.

What would you be willing to give up for Richards, Miami Pimp? They are going to want at the very least a NHL-ready D-men and picks.

They don’t have the best defense and they are injured and STACKED at the forward position. They need Richards almost as much as we do only they need a stud defenseman. They know how desperate we are at center. It’s going to be too much.

At least since I’m home, I’ll try to help on the blog more, lol.
This what’s interesting. Roszival’s trade made signing Richards in the offseason a bit more difficult. Removing all our UFAs (Frolov, Prospal, Fedotenko, Eminger and White[gulp]), gives the team $9.6M in cap space. They need to resign their RFAs (Callahan, Dubinsky, AA, Gilroy, Sauer, Boyle and, perhaps Eminger as an UFA) It’ll be enough to do just that, maybe will leave an extra $1M. Roszival’s deal adds another $1.2M. Even if they buy out Drury, it gives them $3.3M extra. This may not be enough cap space to sign Richards for $7.5M. Thoughts?

You folks who keep hoping for Kaberle…have a care. He has refused to leave Toronto in the past, and he’s not the dashing hell for leather player he was earlier on. Far more cautious in his play now. They can do better.

it leaves no room for any young player like Zuccarello on the roster and it leaves Anisimov or Stepan out of position. If they have Wolski and Richards on the roster, someone is going to be sent packing, probably for a defenseman.

oleo, if you get Richards and Wolski turns out to be a first-line player, then it’s simple. You don’t need Avery, Drury, Boogaard or Christensen. And if you have 12 better forwards than Zuccarello, what’s wrong with that?

Miami, even if Richards was on the trading block, which I firmly believe he’s not, he’s going to cost a lot more than Grachev and Gilroy. Richards is this year’s Hossa from 2008 and Kovalchuk from 2010.

Both those players were due to be unrestricted FAs and they brought back a return of something like 1 or 2 current NHL players, 1 high ceiling/near NHL prospect that was a former 1st round pick, a 1st round pick in the upcoming draft. Expect Dallas to use that as the basis for any trade package.

UKRanger’s post. I meant to say buyout cap hits. That was the main reason to front load deals so that buyouts would not count as much against the cap as opposed to if they used the average annual value.

Charlie – actually, Olga and the family were fans of the B’Hawks long before they won the Cup last year. They couldnt have possibly known that the Hawks were going to win…they hadnt won is a loooong time and the West is always filled with powerhouse teams.

Dubinsky had a strong case for All-star, but so has a couple of Flyers. The weirdest thing is Zetterberg being left out. He has had a terrific season and is the best two-way center along with Datsyuk. Weird. Glad for Staal though, absolutely deserved the recognition (which is really the only thing that matters when it comes to All-Star games). Hank is of course a given when looking around the Eastern.

I expect Dubi and Cally to get similar deals to Staal, or comparable to Backes and Giroux. Gilroy gets qualified at 110% of his current cap hit. Anisimov and Boyle to get similar deals to what Dubi and Cally got for their first RFA deals. Total cap goes is around 57.375. A 5% increase in the cap brings it up to 62.37. So with no 7th D they’ve only got about $5M in cap space, not enough for Richards without more moves.

We seem to be forgetting that Drury will only earn $5M next season in real dollars in the walk year of his contract.

Someone may trade for him in the offseason (a cash-poor team near the salary floor), he could retire like Naslund, or he could get bought out, giving the Rangers a $2.35M cap charge for 2011-12 and 2012-13, freeing up $4.7M in cap space for next year.

Anyone also think that the WW trade had something to do with the skills competition of a game? I believe that his stats are pretty good in the SO, and without the skills of CHristianson, the look is kind of bleak –

Remember last years play-offs, right? We need skill in that area – and many teams are starting to look at that in mid season signings

CTB- I have a bit less optimistic numbers than you, but, even with buying Drury out, they won’t have enough money to sign Richards unless they do something else. QO, by the way, should be 110% of the previous year’s salary, not average cap hit. Gilroy is making $2.1 this year, no one will give him anything in the range of $2.31M. He will have to settle for less money and longer years if he wants to play for the Rangers.

Oh and Lundqvist and Staal are the ideal All-Star choices for this team- we win with defense and goaltending, and scoring by committee. It’s always different goal scorers but Staal and The King get it done almost every game.

I love Denise… speaking of which, congratulations to Michael Douglas, who appears to have beaten cancer! HIP HIP HOORAY! And keep Charlie Sheen in your thoughts, he apparently is in need of some serious rehab, i hope he gets the help he needs.

you really think they will buyout Drury. I know its the smart decision but they absolutely love him here and Idk if they are too loyal to him.

either way buying out Drury would allow the Rangers to not only afford Richards but acquire the top offensive defenseman they really need. I think a package of Wolski, Del Zotto, Grachev and a 1st rounder is enough to net us a guy like Shea Weber, Duncan Keith, Tobi Enstrom, Jack Johnson, Drew Doughty etc.

Not saying those specific players would/could be available but a player on that level is needed in addition to the #1 center.

I don’t see this as a “big risk going with all young defensemen” trade. After all, young players gain experience and confidence with every game, and get older, every day. I salute this club and any club which has the guts to go with young, albeit raw, talent, over dead-end, downside, not overly motivated, low-production veterans. And guess what, this is exactly how Stanley Cups are won, down the road. Look at Chicago, at how they brought in talented teenagers two years ago, paid dues for one year, then won it all. Edge to the Rangers on the Rozy trade – even bigger edge to the Rangers for putting this forward-looking philosophy into place.